THROUGHOUT
the 2008 campaign, Barack Hussein Obama claimed it was a “smear” to refer to
him as “Barack Hussein Obama.” The candidate had initially rhapsodized over how
his middle name, the name of the prophet Mohammed’s grandson, would signal a
new beginning in American relations with the Muslim world. But when the
nomination fight intensified, Obama decided that Islamic heritage was a net
negative. So, with a media reliably uncurious about political biographies
outside metropolitan Wasilla, Obama did what Obama always does: He
airbrushed his personal history on the fly.

Suddenly, it was “just making stuff
up,” as Obama put it, for questioners “to say that, you know, maybe he’s got
Muslim connections.” “The only connection I’ve had to Islam,” the candidate
insisted, “is that my grandfather on my father’s side came from [Kenya]. But
I’ve never practiced Islam.” Forget about “Hussein”; the mere mention of
Obama’s middle initial — “H” — riled the famously thin-skinned senator.
Supporters charged that “shadowy attackers” were “lying about Barack’s
religion, claiming he is a Muslim.” The Obamedia division at USA Today, in a
report subtly titled “Obama’s grandma slams ‘untruths,’” went so far as to
claim that Obama’s Kenyan grandmother is a Christian — even though a year
earlier, when Obama’s “flaunt Muslim ties” script was still operative, the
New York Times had described the same woman, 85-year-old Sara Hussein Obama,
as a “lifelong Muslim” who proclaimed, “I am a strong believer of the
Islamic faith.” [continued]

NPRI LVCVA 'bigs' duck questions

Millions in public's
cash channeled to
political juice man William Vassiliadis

New York Times Blog:Obama presidency
already marked by big-time screw-upsFrom giving contradictory
statements on the economy to making gaffes about the Special Olympics,
team Obama has lost the communications magic that propelled it to the
White House.
[read
analysis]

LAS VEGAS – A long-time political
consultant and former campaign manager for U.S. Senator Harry Reid has
gone public with allegations that Reid had a secret and corrupt
relationship with the notorious pimp Joe Conforte, of the famed
Mustang Ranch brothel that for decades sat outside of Reno.

CARSON CITY – Attorney General
Catherine Cortez Masto had to ignore Nevada law when she rejected the
request of Gov. Jim Gibbons to join other states challenging the
constitutionality of the controversial health reform bill pushed
through the Senate by Harry Reid, signed by President Obama and
opposed by most Americans.

Nevada statutes specifically require
the Office of the Attorney General to accede to the direction of the
governor of the state in such matters.
NRS 228.170,
which deals with legal actions to
protect the interest of the State of Nevada states:

"1. Whenever
the Governor directs or when, in the opinion of the Attorney
General, to protect and secure the interest of the State it is necessary
that a suit be commenced or defended in any federal or state court,
the Attorney General shall commence the
action or make the defense." (Emphasis added.)

NPRI
For over a decade, state
tax bureaucrats broke law

High court: State continues
in ‘dereliction’
of duties, hosing home and property owners

CARSON CITY, Nev. — The Nevada Tax Commission has
violated state law for more than 10 years by failing to issue a
statutorily required tax-policy manual to ensure that the state's 17
county assessors uniformly and equally appraise property parcels
across the state.

The lack of the tax
manual has resulted in significant disparities among county assessors
in how they value property for tax purposes, state records, court
rulings and interviews with assessors show. [continue]

Greenspun Media admits it
pimps out Sun editorial staffRob Curley
boasts about it to marketing conventioneers

Confessions of a
retired newsmanJournalists
as organisms

By W.W. Anderson

LAS VEGAS — When I myself was a young and
smug reporter on the East Coast, I couldn’t see it. Years later,
however, I noticed it regularly.

It very much resembled the old Saturday
Night Live routine where Chevy Chase would pause, look out at the
audience, and then arrogantly observe, “I’M Chevy Chase, and
YOU’RE not!” [continued]

Polling data show that Mr. Obama's
approval rating is dropping and is below where George W. Bush was in an
analogous period in 2001. Rasmussen Reports data shows that Mr. Obama's
net presidential approval rating -- which is calculated by subtracting
the number who strongly disapprove from the number who strongly approve
-- is just six, his lowest rating to date. [continued]

It's a Nastygram from
Bill Raggio

By Glenn Cook Las Vegas Review-Journal

In the high-stakes poker game that is
the 2009 Legislature, Republican Bill Raggio has laid down his cards. No
raise. No call. Not that anyone's surprised. The easiest mark of the
session has been showing his tax-hiking tells since Election Day. With
state revenues falling alongside the fortunes of this state's tourism
industry, the sympathies of the state Senate minority leader
indisputably lie with those of big-spending majority Democrats. [continued]

Hydrologist: Vegas
water authority planning another Owens Valley

By Emily Green
Las Vegas Sun

The raw glory of the Mojave and
Great Basin deserts is difficult to imagine from the paved fantasyland
of Las Vegas. As the road wends north of the city, past sun-soaked
bluffs into Pahranagat Valley, there is what looks like a river but are
in fact four spring-fed lakes running for some 40 miles. Audubon himself
would weep at the birdlife working this watering spot on the Pacific
flyway. Bald eagles ride the breezes. Herons skid across the water.
[continue]

Earlier in the same series:Reid names his
legacy:
'the
rape of White Pine County'

To save his family’s livelihood from a
Las Vegas water scheme that could reduce his land to dust, a White Pine
County rancher joins forces with Utah

By Emily Green, Las Vegas Sun

When
Southern Nevada Water Authority Manager Pat Mulroy appealed to Congress
in 2004 to provide right of way for a pipeline to deliver ground water
from the heart of Nevada to Las Vegas, Utah stirred.

One of the two sweetest
valleys targeted by Las Vegas sat bang on the state line between Nevada
and Utah. And not just Utah, but Brigham Young’s chosen seat for the
original Utah Territory. Utah quickly attached a condition to the bill:
Before Nevada could draw from any shared water system, both states had
to negotiate the amount. Or, as an incandescent Mulroy described it,
Utah gained a “veto” on her pipeline project. [continue]

Harry Reid sits alone at his kitchen
table at 4 a.m., writing important notes in crayon on the outside of
envelopes. It's been four weeks since he launched his personal
investigation into the Republican plot to manipulate intelligence to
trick the American people into believing Saddam Hussein had weapons
of mass destruction. [more]